Archive: January ’13 on The Blog

I think it’s fair to say that Ali has earned her position as “Creative Director” here at Lima Beads, right? We’re all pretty enamored with the designs, concepts, and color pairings she comes up with. Sometimes, though, I look out into our warehouse at all these components, just begging to be made into a beautiful piece of jewelry and I think, “What can I make outta this?!” I tend to be all thumbs when it comes to the fine-motor skills of jewelry making. Not to mention (ask Kadie) my attention span is somewhat lacking in the length department.

A Craft Nite is born

Kadie and I decided it was time to put some of these tips, techniques and design inspirations to the test by holding our own crafting night to see if a) we could follow directions enough to make something someone might actually want to wear; and b) see if Kate could actually finish a project instead of hiding one more half-finished project under the living room coffee table…

We started by picking a project: the Anchor Bracelet. Nautically themed & classy. Our friends at TierraCast had posted a video to YouTube teaching us how to make a couple knots and voila! An easy 5-minute bracelet! (In actuality it took Kadie the prescribed 5 minutes, while Kate spent most of the time trying to select which color leather cord to use…her total time came to approx 13-minutes. But no crying! So that’s good ).

It just feels good to actually get a project completed, doesn’t it? Sometimes I feel like we all need a little “quick and easy” project to re-calibrate our creativity and talents. To get us over any lingering “winter-blahs”. Or to simply have a starting point from which to embellish and re-invent. So, I know it’s a little late (the first month, nearly over), but Kate & Kadie craft nights are going to be our New Year’s resolution. To try to carve out time from our busy day-jobs and get crafty What’s your favorite Q&E project? Or is that asking to reveal too great of secret?

Here’s the video from TierraCast on how to make the soon-to-be-very famous Anchor Bracelet:

The 4th Annual Crossword Sale at Lima Beads is back… so get ready for a new sale every day in January!

The Details

We’ve built a crossword puzzle with 31 hints, one for each day of the month. Every day, we’ll reveal a new answer that tells you which products are on sale that day (if the answer is “purple,” you’ll save on all purple beads!) If you print the puzzle and solve it ahead of time, you’ll have a preview of all the remaining sales. The sales only last 24 hours each, but as long as you add an item to your shopping bag on the day of the sale, you’ll have 7 days to complete your purchase and get the reduced price. But don’t wait too long–these prices are while supplies last!

The Bonus…

There’s also a bonus for solving the entire puzzle, just like last year. Unscramble a hidden message in the puzzle and get a prize! You’ll have to solve the puzzle to see what’s behind the curtain though, so grab your pencil and check it out.

The BONUS Bonus…

Just like last year, we have an extra bonus. Every beader who unscrambles the secret hidden message mentioned above will be entered to win one of three $50 Gift Certificates to our shop. Just enter the correct answer on the Crossword page, and you’re automatically entered to win.

Follow Along!

You can follow along with all the sales over on the Crossword Puzzle page. And if you have questions or comments, just leave them below!